These Streets Know My Name

Theo didn’t want to go home.

“Let’s get another drink,” he said to Mark, a co-worker and friend of almost twenty years.

“I think if you have another drink, you might fall over,” Mark replied laughing.

Theo shook his head, even though he knew that Mark was probably right.

Theo stared over the railing of the rooftop bar and looked out across the skyline of skyscrapers, and city lights that sparkled, and cars driving to their destinations, and couples laughing and walking and talking and arguing on the streets below.

He breathed deeply the smell of hot dogs, and booze, and smog, and something else that was so uniquely Chicago he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It was different than New York. Different than Seattle. Different than anywhere else in the world.

“Theo,” Mark said, shaking Theo from his reverie, “You have to go home sometime.”

Theo continued to look out at his beloved city, “But it won’t be home anymore, will it?”

“You’re going to make a new home,” Mark said, slapping Theo on the back in encouragement, “You’re going to have a new adventure.”

Theo nodded but said nothing.

Theo stood outside his apartment looking up at the small, brick building he had lived in since he was a child. It held fifteen units within its walls. He had seen so many people come and go. The Feinsteins. The Cohens. The McGlowskys. The Tagliones. He had loved this little building so much that when he got married, he convinced his wife that they should move into the apartment next door to his mother’s that had just been left vacant by The Jacksons. His wife was initially hesitant to live so near her mother-in-law but there had been no need to worry. They got along perfectly and when Aaron was born, his mother was there to be a part of the first three years of his son’s life before she had died, which meant a great to deal to Theo. He had taken his first steps in that building. So, had his son. Going into the apartment meant seeing it for the last time and Theo wasn’t ready for that.

Theo walked around the block. He stared at various streets and corners that to anyone else probably meant nothing, but to him...to him they were bookmarks. Folded pages of his life.

There was the corner where he had gotten into his first fight. Every neighborhood had a bully, and Jimmy Bello was theirs. He was a small kid. Short and skinny and stronger than he looked. He was fast in a fight and could take down kids twice as big as he was. Most steered clear but Jimmy liked to fight. He thrived on it. So, he looked for it constantly. Theo was walking home from school one afternoon and felt something sharp hit the back of his head. He turned and saw Jimmy Bello with his two large cronies smiling a big toothy, almost maniacal smile.

“Hey Booger Face,” Jimmy shouted, “Wanna throw down?”

Theo did not want to throw down.

Theo wanted to go home and listen to the newest episode of The Masked Avenger. But kids had already gathered around, seeming to appear out of thin air. They stared at him, wide-eyed. Walking away from the fight would mean instant humiliation.

Theo sighed and put down his bag. He faced Jimmy, who was cracking his knuckles menacingly.

Theo had never been in a fight. But he had seen lots of them on the streets where he lived. He mimicked the wide stance and raised his arms as he had seen others do.

Jimmy ran at him and Theo swung and miraculously landed the punch right on Jimmy’s jaw, knocking the small boy out cold.

Kids ran in all directions. Theo stared at his own hand in wonder. What had just happened?

Kids would talk about it years later. How Theo Greenburg, who had never hit anyone in his life, had beaten the notorious Jimmy Bello.

No one saw Jimmy after that. It was rumored that he forced his mother to move them out of town out of sheer embarrassment.

There was the alleyway where Theo had gotten his first kiss.

He was fourteen.

It was a Friday. And he could see Esther Rose eating a cherry popsicle, and staring at him from across the school parking lot. Gathering a courage he didn’t know existed inside of him, he walked over and asked if he could walk her home.

She smiled and said yes, and so they did.

And when he had walked her home, she offered to walk him home.

And he said yes.

They didn’t talk much as far as he could remember.

They were both too nervous.

His hands were sweating.

He couldn’t think of anything to say even though they had technically known each other since they were five.

And when they got to his apartment, he was about to ask if he could walk her home again, when she pulled him into the alleyway and put her mouth on his.

It was brief and before he could even register what had happened, she had taken off running and didn’t speak to him after that.

She had tasted just like cherries.

And there was the street where he had first seen his wife, Ruth.

He had gone to Northwestern university and was coming home for the weekend.

He was stepping out of the cab as she emerged from Ed’s Bakery at the same time.

He froze when he saw her.

He couldn’t move.

He couldn’t breathe.

She looked just like an angel, he thought.

They locked eyes and she dropped her box. Rolls and donuts spilled across the pavement.

He rushed out of the cab and over to her.

“You, ok?” he asked, helping her pick up the baked goods.

“Yes,” she said blushing, “What a klutz, huh?”

“You’re probably the least klutzy person in the world,” he replied, silently cursing himself for sounding so cheesy.

“Oh, please,” she responded, brushing sugar off her skirt, “I fall everywhere. Gravity is not my friend. I could be standing perfectly still and somehow my ass finds itself on the floor.”

She gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

“Pardon my language,” she said softly.

Theo laughed so hard he snorted and decided then and there that this was the woman he was going to marry.

Theo stood once again in front of his apartment building.

The building where Aaron had been born.

They had had a plan of course.

During Ruth’s last month of pregnancy, they had a bag packed with all of the essentials they would need for the hospital.

They had given the neighbors Theo’s work number in case it happened when he was at the office.

They were ready.

But plans have a way of going awry.

It was the middle of a cold, December night when Ruth woke the building with her screaming.

“What?” Theo had asked in a panic.

“It’s happening!” Ruth said, wailing.

“WHAT?!” Theo had asked again in disbelief.

Ruth grabbed his arm with such force that he was positive she was going to break it off.

“IT’S HAPPENING!” she bellowed at the top of her lungs.

Multiple people started knocking on their door.

He could hear shouts of Are you Ok?! Coming from the other side of the walls.

Theo stood frozen.

Shouldn’t there have been contractions?

Shouldn’t there have been some kind of warning?

Ruth grabbed his arm again, screaming at him to do something.

He hoisted her up and together they walked to the door, behind which stood his mother, and all their neighbors dressed in their nightgowns.

Together their neighbors helped get Ruth to the stairs at which point she screamed,

“HE’S COMING!”

And everyone in the small brick building of 140 N. Park Place helped Ruth give birth to Aaron Greenburg.

How was he supposed to walk away from all of this?

These streets knew his name.

His roots were all over this city.

If he left, the roots would strain and pull, and he would be reduced to pieces.

He finally walked into the building and up the stairs to his apartment.

He opened the door and found Ruth sitting on the floor playing with Aaron, showing him the sights they would find in LA.

“The ocean!” Aaron shouted, except with his little lisp it sounded like, “osthen.”

Aaron pointed to the palm trees and the mountains and the sandy beaches with Ooos and Ahhs as Ruth laughed.

“And guess what else is in LA?” Ruth said, “Grandma Gigi, my mama. You’re going to meet her and Grandpa Joel and your aunties and uncles and…”

Theo watched Ruth prattle off about who Aaron was going to meet.

He watched her eyes light up and Aaron thump his little hands against the floor in excitement.

He knew that Ruth missed her family and wanted them to know Aaron. He had heard the way she sounded when she spoke to her sisters and brothers. She wanted to be near them. He knew she would be happier in LA.

And he knew that Aaron would flourish anywhere they went.

And he looked at his family and thought about roots.

About how they start and how they grow.

And that home, the real home, was so much more than just a place.

Ruth and Aaron looked up at him, both smiling.

“Aren’t you excited Daddy?” Aaron squealed.

“I am, Aaron,” Theo replied bending down and holding them both, “I really am.”